


Christmas Wishes

by joannereads



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 05:29:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8832259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joannereads/pseuds/joannereads
Summary: Harvey isn’t enjoying the wedding AT ALL, until something (or rather someone) catches his eye.





	

Mike watches the older man at the end of the bar. He doesn’t seem to be enjoying the wedding, particularly. In fact, it’s as though his presence is required rather than desired. He’s been nursing his whiskey for nearly a half hour, which is much longer than it took to down the first three.

The bride and groom whirl on the dance floor and the older man watches. At first, Mike isn’t sure if he’s watching the bride or the groom. He thinks he sees jealousy, but it’s tinged with resignation and acceptance.

“Can I get you anything else?” Mike asks.  
“No, thanks. Still going strong.” The man’s voice is like honey—rich and golden. A little like his eyes. The warmth in them is genuine enough.

“Well, if you change your mind just give me a shout or a dignified wave or something.” Mike shrugs, nerves attacking him (which is downright unusual). The older man laughs.  
“I’ll do that,” he adds, smiling at Mike who feels it right down in his gut. 

A few hours later, much of the wedding party has dispersed. The bride and groom headed off on their honeymoon twenty minutes ago, but the unwilling guest hasn’t moved. A pretty brunette tried to talk to him on and off for a while, but she gave up when it became apparent he wasn’t really listening.

“Hey, again,” Mike says as he approaches. The bar is closing and he wants to get cleaned up, head back home to make sure Grammy is okay before he hits the books for an hour or so. Sleep’s for pussies anyway.  
“Hey,” the older man replies.  
“One more for the road?” Mike asks, gesturing at the long empty glass.  
“I really shouldn’t,” is the soft reply he gets.  
“Listen, this one’s on me,” Mike says, placing a single shot in front of him. “It’s Mike, by the way,” he adds sheepishly.  
“Thanks, Mike. You didn’t have to.”  
The silence is momentarily intimidating as Mike’s eyes meet those of the stranger.  
“So, erm, how’d you know the happy couple?” Mike asks, desperate to make some form of conversation.  
“Donna is my secretary, Marcus my brother.”  
The silence returns, but this time it’s more wistful.  
“Wow. Did you introduce them?”  
“Not really.”

Okay, so Mike is usually pretty good at getting people to open up. It’s why he’s good at his job and why he gets the tips that are helping keep him afloat as he desperately tries to figure out what the hell to do with his life. This conversation is hard work, though, yet the man intrigues him. His hair is perfectly styled, the suit clearly expensive, and the body beneath clearly well looked after.  
“Harvey!” A striking woman, all chocolate skin and dark hair, glides towards him and places a hand on his shoulder. “Still sulking, I see,” she teases fondly.  
“Jessica, I am not sulking.”  
“She will be back, you know. I’m sure even you can manage for a month without her. There are plenty of secretaries in the pool to choose from. Try not to scare them all away though,” she adds with a soft wink.  
“They don’t hold a candle to her and you know it. Going to be the longest month of my life.”  
“Seriously, dude, you’re sulking because she’s not coming in to work?” Mike’s sudden exposition makes him—uncomfortably—the centre of attention.  
“Did he have you thinking it was more serious?” Jessica asks him and he smiles uncertainly.  
“I thought maybe he was in love with her, actually,” Mike replies, his own smile broader now. Harvey splutters into his drink.  
“She’s not his type,” Jessica replies with a laugh, before she kisses Harvey on the cheek and slips away.

“So what is your type?” Mike asks. His nerves have becomes twisted into something he wants to name excitement, though it seems early for that.  
“Not nosey barmen, that’s for sure,” Harvey responds, his eyebrows tipped up slightly.  
“Not just a barman,” Mike smirks.  
“College then?” Harvey asks. Mike seems young enough for it, but only just.  
“Still, yes. Trying to figure out what I want to do.”  
“What are you studying?” Harvey asks, though Mike’s unsure how genuine his interest is as he’s back to staring at his whiskey.  
“Psychology, physics, law and English Lit, though might end up changing that major to language.” Mike keeps his tone light but he knows how people respond when they hear how much he’s doing.  
“Seriously? You expect me to believe that you’re studying four majors at once?” Harvey mocks.  
“No, because most people don’t. Doesn’t change that it’s the truth though.” Mike shrugs and walks away. There are glasses to clean and stock which needs refilling, and he really does want to get home.  
“Hey, Mike?”  
Mike turns and Harvey is looking at him. He’s trying for nonchalance, but his intrigue shines through.  
“Yes, Harvey?”  
“What time do you finish?”  
“I thought I wasn’t your type!” Mike laughs.  
“Fascinating people are my type, and you intrigue me Mike. I’d like to take you for coffee.”  
Mike thinks this over for a moment, before returning to the end of the bar.  
“Not tonight, I have to get home to Grammy. But tomorrow, after classes, I have a half hour free. You know Maple Grind, on Porter and Fourth?” Mike waits and Harvey nods. “I can meet you there at three.”  
“I have work,” Harvey adds, his mouth twisted sourly as though he’s not sure how he feels about it.  
“Are you the boss?”  
“Of me,” Harvey scoffs.  
“Then I’ll see you at three.” Mike strides away, and if he flicks his hips a little more than usual it’s only because he’s been standing so long. Honest!

~*~  
Harvey stares at himself in the mirror. He feels old today. And work is going to blow without Donna there. He ties his perfect knot, drinks his ludicrously expensive coffee, and heads down in his private elevator. It all feels so false today, emptier somehow. His mind wanders during the ride to the office, the soft jazz which floats around him more echo than tune in his brain. He remembers how work used to fire him up, how striding onto the fortieth floor used to make his blood hum and his brain fizz.

But not recently. 

Jessica leaves him be, the competition is non-existent, and since Louis left there’s been little in the way of entertainment.  
“Good morning, Harvey,” Rachel says as she moves alongside him. “I’ve prepped the briefs for Patterson at eleven, rearranged lunch with Dashen to next week until we get his patent issue resolved and I’ve proof read the motions for this afternoon. Is there anything else you need?” she asks, passing him a coffee. She’s no Donna, not even close, but she might be the only thing that keeps him sane while Donna is gone.  
“Thanks, Rachel,” he says taking the cup. He can feel her eyes on him as he walks away.  
“No pithy comment? No discharge with a hundred corrections? Come on, Harvey! She’ll only be gone a few weeks!” Rachel calls after him, a worried smile in the tone. He just waves over his head and kicks the door to his office closed behind him.

Flipping open the laptop, he loads Google and pauses. Okay, so Mike is clearly either a wunderkind or a con artist. Before coffee, Harvey is going to make sure it’s not the latter. Following a link from the hotel’s web page to trivago, and hitting on other comments and likes and reviews, he manages to find Mike Ross’s facebook page. It’s sparse, like Mike forgets to tell everyone what he had for lunch, though there are a few pictures of him with Grammy, who he tags (though her facebook page is just Mike’s tags, which seems pointless). Now he has a name, and a college, he takes his research a bit more seriously.

A couple of hours later, he closes the lid and looks out through the expansive glass wall to Donna’s desk. A blonde girl sits and waits for orders, nervously twitching. Her eyes flick over to him and she smiles, the terror making her bare her teeth a little too much. Harvey nods and spins away to look out over the city.

Mike’s story chases itself around his brain. The kid’s clever, that’s for sure, but the death of his parents screwed him up for a while. Grammy’s been his caregiver ever since, and it’s clear they love each other very much.

Harvey is half intrigued and half terrified. If Donna were here he’d be bending her ear, desperate for her advice. He wants to know more about Mike, whose brain fascinates him as much as his life story does. But he’s fourteen years younger, which feels like a hell of a lot, and Harvey’s been struggling to make connections since Andrew left six years ago. Sure, he plays around with Scottie when she’s in town, but there’s no depth there. No substance. Just teasing and competition.

“Ah, Mr Specter?” a nervous voice crackles through the intercom.  
“What is it?” he asks, not unkindly (Jessica was serious about not scaring them all away).  
“There’s a call for you from a Mr Ross. He says you met last night and he needs to rearrange your 3pm meeting, but there’s nothing in your calendar and I didn’t—”  
Harvey cuts her off. “Put him through.” She nods, relief in the set of her shoulders, and transfers the call.  
“Harvey Specter,” he says, putting his game face on to match the voice.  
“Wow, you’ve got the whole big office, secretary thing going on, haven’t you?” Mike asks and Harvey finds he smiles without meaning to.  
“How’d you find me?” he asks.  
“Google. I knew where the bride worked, not too many Harveys in the directory.”  
Harvey smiles into his empty office again, before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.  
“What can I do for you, Mike?”  
“I forgot I have a shift at the library at four, so can’t do coffee. I was wondering if you were free for lunch instead, maybe?”  
Harvey glances at his watch; it’s already noon. “The library?”  
“More than one job, Harvey. Lots and lots of college fees when you can’t pick a major. So, lunch?”  
“Tomorrow?”  
“Sure,” Mike pauses, “but I was hoping for today. In fact, I’m—” Mike cuts off again.  
“You’re what?”  
“Well, outside. Your office. I am downstairs, outside your office, with sandwiches and coffee. Okay, so now I sound like a total stalker. Sorry. This was a bad idea.”  
Harvey lets Mike ramble for a few seconds before standing. “I’m on my way.” He hangs up the phone and grabs his coat.  
“I’ll be back later,” he says to the anxious blonde at Donna’s desk, before heading straight for the elevators.

~*~

Harvey and Mike have chewed in companionable silence for the better part of ten minutes before Harvey speaks. Mike seems nervous, and Harvey spends the first couple of minutes watching the younger man eat. It isn’t long before his mind begins to wonder what else that mouth might be good at, so he has to stop himself from heading too far down that road. Instead, he talks.  
“Four majors, how does that work?”  
“Photographic memory,” Mike shrugs, “I remember and understand everything I read, and I read fast. Once I realised I needed to actually sort my shit out, I found I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So, Grammy said choose a couple of things. A couple is not four, I know, but the plan was to drop a couple when I had done a year, just never managed to choose.”  
“Photographic memory?” Harvey probes, intrigued. He knew Mike was unusual, special, but this was even better than he had let himself think.  
“Yes,” Mike smiles. “You want to ask me to recite something now, don’t you?” he asks.  
“No,” Harvey shrugs, looking away, but Mike’s soft chuckle makes him smile too.  
“That’s what everyone does,” Mike says wistfully, “like I’m a performing chimp or something, but I’d much rather surprise people with it.”  
Is it just books?” Harvey asks.  
“No, anything I see. If I leave the subtitles on a movie, I can recall the entire script. Though, to be honest, I don’t have much trouble remembering scripts anyway.”  
They finish lunch quietly, just being in the presence of each other. Suddenly, an hour has passed, and Mike is standing to leave.  
“I have class,” he says somewhat reluctantly.  
“Which one?” Harvey asks.  
“Ethics, it’s for my law degree. I do most of my studying online, because it’s quicker, but this guy demanded I attend and so I go.”  
“Yeah, ethics professors are like that. I’d offer to help you study but I’m betting that isn’t really an issue,” Harvey says.  
Mike shakes his head and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “I really have to go. I enjoyed this. Can we, I mean, are you free this weekend?”  
Harvey stands. “Yeah. I could cook, we can watch the game.” He swallows, his throat dry almost instantly. “I mean, if you’d like to come to my place. Or we can go out, if you’d rather?”  
“In is good. I enjoy the quiet. Pass me your phone.”  
Harvey unlocks it and passes it over. Mike adds his own number and then scrolls for a moment, finding Harvey’s number and reading it over. He doesn’t miss the famous names in the phone book, but he ignores them (well, tries to, it’s not his fault he remembers everything!).  
“Text me your address and time; I’m free all weekend,” Mike says, handing back the phone. “Grammy is away with her bridge club.” Mike begins to step away but Harvey catches his arm, pulls him closer and presses a soft kiss to Mike’s cheek before letting the distance back between them.  
“Well, I’ll see you later,” Mike says breathlessly before he turns away and hurries toward the bus stop.  
“See you,” Harvey murmurs, the sensation of Mike’s skin beneath his mouth beginning to thrum through his blood. 

~*~

Harvey waits. Dinner is ready and Mike isn’t here. For the last twenty minutes, Harvey has battled with the urge to call him and find out why he’s late. He doesn’t want to believe Mike has changed his mind. Maybe he’s kidding himself that there’s something between them, though? Maybe Mike doesn’t feel what Harvey does.

The knock at the door startles him from his reverie and Harvey hurries over.  
“I am so sorry!” Mike begins, stumbling through the doorway and unwrapping himself from his scarf and hat and coat. “The snow’s turned public transit to shit and the bus was late.”  
“You could have called,” Harvey says a little bitterly.  
“I lost my phone,” Mike says sheepishly. “And before you say it. Yes I have a photographic memory, but that’s for words and is totally different to knowing where I have put and or left things.” He stops then, cheeks flushed from the cold outside and the mild panic he has been feeling. He stares straight into Harvey’s eyes. “I am sorry,” he says, seeing that the older man is more hurt and realising that this is about more than just Mike’s lateness. “I will try my very best to never let it happen again, providing all goes well today and you don’t want to get rid of me, that is!” he adds, laughing. Harvey relaxes and tugs Mike into him, holding them together briefly.  
“Okay,” is all he says, then steps back and leads the way in to the apartment.

“Holy shit!” Mike exclaims as they round the corner and the wall of glass catches his eye. “Okay, I knew you were a hot lawyer, in every sense,” he adds with a wink in Harvey’s mildly embarrassed direction, “but not this hot. This place must be worth a couple of mill, easy!”  
Harvey doesn’t like to talk about money, mostly because he has it, but hearing Mike say it only draws attention to the huge gulf of differences between them. He shifts uncomfortably and Mike turns to him.  
“Hey,” he says, moving closer to Harvey and placing a hot hand on Harvey’s forearm. “You work hard for this, and one day I will too. Just, not sure as what yet!” His following laugh is self-deprecating and breaks the tension.  
“Let’s air all of this now, okay? I am broke, mostly, and I live with my Grammy. I have no idea what I want to do, but when I do, I will be amazing at it. I am twenty seven, and should have all of this figured out, but I fucked up the first time around and so I had to start again. I haven’t had a serious relationship in a couple of years, see earlier fuck up, and I’m not sure what I’m looking for right now, if anything. But I’m here because I think, if nothing else, we’ll make great friends. I do not want your money. I do want dinner though, because I’m a starved student!” He pauses for a breath, calming himself before continuing. “What do you want, Harvey? Why am I here?”  
“For dinner. I want dinner, too.” Harvey shifts under Mike’s intense gaze and then clenches his jaw. “We’re really doing this?” Harvey asks. Mike simply waits. “I don’t do sharing, not like this,” Harvey continues, but Mike just watches. Harvey’s head drops to his chest for a moment, and then he looks back up into the clearest, most genuine blue eyes he’s seen in years, and grins. “Fine. No serious relationship for years. Did have a live in, once, but it went to hell. I am not after your money, so no worries there,” he adds, and Mike’s grin is blinding, “and I don’t know what I want, right now. But you intrigue me, Mike Ross, and I just want to get to know you.”  
“Thank fuck for that!” Mike laughs. “Dinner then?”

The evening is a blur of wine, amazing food, laughter and smiles. As the early hours of the morning roll in, Mike’s stories become whispers in the candlelight, and Harvey’s heartbeat develops a faint hammering that feels a little like panic but a lot like home.

He has spent a total of about ten hours with Mike and already he doesn’t want to let him go.

Harvey is so screwed.

“I should go,” Mike says quietly. They still sit at the kitchen island, discarded plates and empty glasses pushed to one side for the coffee cups they now sip from.  
“Okay,” Harvey agrees, but mostly because he can’t think of anything else to say that won’t be an incredibly intimidating declaration.  
“I have a paper to write,” Mike continues quietly, his palm now resting on Harvey’s thigh. Like a brand, Harvey feels each finger where it presses into his skin.  
“Okay,” he says again.  
“I should get started on it early,” Mike adds. But now he is standing in front of Harvey, one hand on each thigh and his mouth perilously close to Harvey’s. “But if you want me to stay, I could maybe be persuaded.” Mike grins a little but Harvey is frozen still.  
He wants. He really, really wants. Each time mike swallowed his dinner, Harvey’s eye’s tracked the movement of his long, pale throat. He’s found himself mesmerised by the way the candle light turns his eyes into an ocean of blue. Each time mike leaned closer, Harvey could smell his aftershave, and it sent shivers through him.

Yet now, as Mike practically throws himself at Harvey, Harvey finds he is utterly terrified.

He does not want to fuck this up.

“Mike,” he begins, but his throat is dry and it takes a shaky breath to compose himself. “Mike, I have thoroughly enjoyed this evening, but I don’t want to rush into anything.”  
Mike looks embarrassed and draws back suddenly, as though he’s been burned. “Of course,” he huffs out before turning to find his coat.  
“Wait!” Harvey gasps, his hear suddenly in his stomach. “Please, Mike.” Harvey waits, his fingers wrapped around Mike’s wrist.  
Each second that passes feels like an eternity, but Mike slowly turns around. His eyes are grey, stormy, and Harvey panics.  
“I don’t want you to go but I don’t want to rush into anything. I totally want to sleep with you, you’re cute,” he adds, knowing I will get a rise from the younger man and smiling at the wry grin his comment elicits from Mike. “But, I like this—us, and I think this could maybe be something, if we don’t fuck it up.”  
“Okay,” Mike replies with a soft smile which makes Harvey’s heart dance. “I get it, you’re an old romantic.”  
“Less of the old,” Harvey laughs, pulling Mike in closer.  
“What about not rushing things?”  
“Just a good night kiss,” Harvey replies, before pressing his lips to Mike’s.

The sensation is overwhelming and sweet and perfect in too many ways, and Harvey is loathed to stop. Yet, after a few moments, he drags himself away, breathless.  
“Okay,” Mike says again, but his cheeks are flushed and his lips spit-slick. It is an amazing look on him and Harvey can’t wait to explore it more, when they’ve gotten to know each other a little more.  
“Can I see you tomorrow?” Mike asks, slipping his arms in to the sleeves of his coat.  
“Yes. The park? We could be touristy, walk the trails.”  
“Sounds good. I’ll call you,” Mike adds.  
“From what phone?” Harvey asks and Mike laughs.  
“I’ll use Grammy’s, it’s not like she ever does.”

The sunrise is beautiful, lighting the skyline in a dazzling array of pinks and lilacs, oranges and yellows. Harvey imagines he feels the heat of the sun on his face, but he is on his balcony in December, so it’s not true.  
He’s been awake since Mike left. Can’t stop thinking about him. Can’t stop planning things for them to do, things he wants to tell him.  
Suddenly, his phone chirps and Harvey grabs it, hopeful it is Mike. His disappointment is momentary when he realises that Donna is calling.  
“You are on your honeymoon,” he answers, “why are you calling me?”  
“Wanted to make sure you were okay,” she says softly.  
“I’m good, thank you,” Harvey replies, “really good.”  
“You met someone!” she gasps, her Donna-style spidey sense kicking in.  
“That I did,” he answers.  
“Tell me everything!” she demands.  
“There’s nothing to tell,” Harvey replies, a tired laugh chasing the words. “Nothing except that maybe, if I don’t screw up, this might be it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas! Hope you enjoyed your Secret Santa!


End file.
